“Short Fuse” Looks to Make Short Work of Belcher

From fighting in front of a small crowd in Yakima, to fighting in front of millions of people around the world, Ed Herman has made some great strides during his young career as an MMA fighter. The Vancouver, WA native and current Portland resident, looks to continue his path towards the top of the UFC’s middleweight division, when he takes on Alan Belcher next Saturday at the UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs. Neer. I recently had a chance to catch up with “Short Fuse” to get his thoughts on his upcoming bout and why he doesn’t necessarily support his coach/trainer’s bid for Congress.

TK: Tell me how your training has been going for this fight.

EH: I’m still at Team Quest and training’s been going great. Everything’s awesome. I’ve had a good training camp, lots of great partners, my health’s good, my weight’s going great right now. I’m excited to get in there and just fight.

TK: What are thoughts on opponent Alan Belcher?

EH: I think it’s a great match up for me. I know he’s going to come in good shape, ready to fight. I think my style matches up well against him. He’s going to come forward and try to engage, but if you’ve ever seen me fight, I like to attack and come forward pretty much non stop. He’s not real good backing up or when the pressure’s put on him. I think I’ll overwhelm him coming forward. He won’t be able to stop my takedowns or handle my ground and pound. So I look forward to putting a good beatdown on him.

TK: There were rumors that the UFC was going to come to your hometown, but that didn’t pan out. How disappointed were you when you found it wasn’t going to happen?

EH: Yeah I was totally disappointed. I was excited to hear the UFC was coming. I think we’re a big fight town. We’ve got lots of tough guys coming out of the northwest and a lot of great fans. I thought it would’ve been a great move for the UFC and I thought it would’ve been awesome to have the UFC in my hometown.

TK: Aside from your own training, I understand you also teach kids at Team Quest?

EH: I haven’t been coaching for about a year now. I took some time off to focus on my training. I also had twins in January so it gives me a little more time to spend with my family.

TK: Do you think the time away from coaching and focusing just on yourself, has made a big difference?

EH: I think it’s great to coach because you break stuff down as your coaching and it really helps you improve your own techniques as a fighter. But at the same time, it’s nice to get a little break and just focus on myself. When you’re coaching all the time and training, you get a little burnt out being in the gym all day long, so it’s been nice to take a break. I definitely want to get back into coaching because it’s one of my passions.

TK: When you were coaching and teaching kids, was it important for you to teach them more than just how to fight?

EH: For sure. You have to make sure they understand this is a sport and it’s not ok to fight outside the gym. At the same time, it is a form of self defense and it gives kids a lot of confidence, especially the kids that come from broken families and things like that. What I am doing now is volunteer coaching for my 5 year old daughter’s soccer team. It’s a little bit different chasing around nine little girls, so I’ve got my hands full with that.

TK: Yeah that must be a big change.

EH: It’s actually kind of the same. You try to keep them paying attention and letting them know that when the coach is talking, you can’t be talking. Just like at school when the teacher’s talking. So it’s the same life discipline in that sense.

TK: One of your own coaches/trainers (Matt Lindland) is also running for Congress in Oregon. How do you think he’d fare as a politician?

EH: I think he’ll be a good politician. It’s hard to say that because I’d rather have him in the gym, coaching more. But you can’t fight forever so he’s exploring other options for his future.

TK: You compete in the middleweight division that’s currently ruled by Anderson Silva. What do you think it’ll take for someone to beat him?

EH: Anderson’s really tough and I think it’d take someone to fight him really smart with a good game plan. Someone who could take him down and control him on top, pass his guard, avoid his submissions and keep him on the ground. He’s so dangerous on his feet.

TK: There’ve been a lot of different MMA promotions that have had mixed success trying to compete with the UFC. Do you think having multiple organizations is a good or bad thing for the sport?

EH: I think it’s good. I think it’ll raise all our salaries. It gives the UFC a little competition so they don’t have a monopoly on the sport. Don’t get me wrong, I love fighting for the UFC. They’re the greatest company I’ve ever been involved with. They’ve taken care of me very well.

TK: A lot of people have their own, preconceived ideas about MMA fighters are like. What’s the one common trait that fighters have that most people really don’t know about?

EH: We’re professional athletes and we work our tails off, but we’re also regular guys, family guys. I just had twins and I’m with them quite a bit. I’m kind of coming into my own and just raising my family. We’re just regular dudes who are also professional athletes that work our tails off.

TK: What are some of your long term goals as both a fighter and as a person?

EH: Obviously I want to raise my kids, healthy and happy. I want to provide good financial security and just a good life for them. I want to help them grow up and maybe not make the same mistakes I made while I was growing up. As far as fighting, I want to be successful and be the champion someday. I’m not in a hurry, I’m still young and have plenty of time to do it. I want to be the champion for sure one day, either in the UFC or the unified title. Whatever I can do, I want to be successful in the fight game for as long as I possibly can.

TK: You are still young and say you have a lot of room to grow as a fighter. What do you think your biggest strengths and weaknesses are right now?

EH: I feel like my biggest strength is my will to win, my never say die attitude, my passion in the ring and my relentless attack. My weaknesses, are probably my experience, getting everything in sync including my Jiu Jitsu, my Jiu Jitsu defense, my stand up and mentally being able to put it all together in the ring. With Demian Maia, I had a great game plan, but I didn’t follow it properly. I went into his game and let him control the pace. I’m just working on improving mentally and focusing on my game plan so that I can win fights and not lose fights I’m supposed to win.